^{page 83 note a} Od. iv. 131.

^{page 83 note b} Lib. iv. c. 162.

^{page 83 note c} Prov. xxxi. 19.

^{page 84 note a} Rosellini, MC. No. 41. See also Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, vol. ii. p. 60, and vol. iii. p. 136.

^{page 84 note b} Vol. xii. taf. 3.

^{page 85 note a} While these sheets were passing through the press, I was favoured by Dr. Lukis, F.S.A., with a drawing of a distaff used at this day in Nubia. An engraving, one-fourth of the actual size,.is here given, and it will be seen that it is used without a spindle, or rather that it acts as a spindle, but is turned without leaving the hand. It seems probable that this is the distaff of primitive antiquity, and it explains the use of the implement held by a female figure on a Greek vase given by Panofka.

From the relative size of the object held by the figure on the Coins of Tarentum, given at page 87, it may possibly be one of these primitive distaffs, and not a spindle or pensum, which must have been an improvement upon the earliest method of spinning.

^{page 85 note b} Lib. iii. c. 12, s. 3.

^{page 85 note c} Credo jam de vestro, quod Egyptii narrant, et Alexander digerit, et mater legit ea tempestate Osiridis, qua ad ilium ex Libya Ammon facit, ovium dives. Denique cum ipsis Mercurium autumant forte palpati arietis mollitie delectatum, deglubasse oviculam: dumque pertentat, et quod facilitas materiae suadebat, tractu prosequente filum eliquat, in vestis pristini modum, quem philyræ tenus junxerat, exisse.—Tertullian, De Pallio, iii.

These different traditions may perhaps be reconciled by the fact that the spinning of wool, although as old as the days of Homer, was a later invention than that of flax, since the fibre of the latter would the more readily suggest its application.

^{page 85 note d} Lib. v. 12, 15.

^{page 85 note e} περι ξωων ββι.κεɸ. ι;β..

^{page 86 note a} περι θεμάτων, βιβ. Α. κεɸ. γ. Ed. 1698, p. 29.

^{page 86 note b} Lanam in colo et fuso Tanaquilis, quæ eadem Caia Caecilia vocata est, in Templo Sangi durasse, prodente se, auctor est M. Varro: factamque ab ea togam regiam undulatam in æde Fortuæ, qua Servius Tullus fuerat usus. Inde factum, ut nubentes virgines comitaretur colus compta, et fusus cum stamine.— Hist. Nat. lib. viii. 74.

^{page 86 note c} Quest. Rom. 31.

^{page 86 note d} Pagana lege in plerisque Italiæ prædiis cavetur ne mulieres per itinera ambulantes torqueant fusos aut omnino detectos ferant, quoniam adversatur id omnium spei, præcipuèque frugum.—Hist. Nat. lib. xxviii. 5.

A similar superstition once obtained in France, and may have been derived from the Eoman Conquerors. “Quant un homme chevauce par le chemin et il rencontre une femme filant, c'est très mauvais rencontre, et doit retourner et prendre son chemin par autre voie.”—Les Evangiles des Quenouilles, Quatrième Journée, xxi. chapitre.

A Roman citizen mourned a deceased wife, whose virtues included spinning and staying at home. The inscription to her memory is given by Fabretti, p. 252, No. 35:—HIC SITA EST AMYMONE MAECI · OPTIMA · ET · PVLCHERRIMA, LANIFICA · PIA · PVDICA · FEVGI · CASTA · DOMISEDA.—See also Orellius, Inscr. Lat. Select, vol. ii. Turici, 1828, Nos. 4639 and 4860.

^{page 87 note a} Epithalam. Pelei et Thetidos. Martial styles the Fates “lanificæ sorores.” vi. 58.

^{page 87 note b} Athenseus, lib. xiv. c. 16; Jul. Pollux, lib. vii. s. 77, voce ταραντἰνιδιον.

^{page 87 note c} Lib. vi. c. 3, s. 9.

^{page 87 note d} See the will of Alfred the Great; Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici, vol. i. p. 116; Archæologia, vol. xxxv. p. 267; Remains of Pagan Saxondom, Intr. p. xii., and p. 48.

It was the custom of the Pagan Prussians to burn the distaff of the woman on the funeral pile. “Si fœmina erat igne cremanda, Colus, insigne sexus fœminei, solebat simul comburi.”—Hartknock, de Funerib. Vet. Prussor. m. 193. Diss. xiii.

^{page 88 note a} Usque ad quintain generationem paterna generatio succedat. Post quintain autem filia ex toto, sive de patris sive matris parte, in hereditatem succedat, et tune demum hereditas ad fusum a lancea transeat.— Lex Thuring. tit. vi. c. 8.

^{page 88 note b} Lex Ripuar. tit. lviii. c. 18; Archæologia, voL xxxv. p. 267, note.

^{page 88 note c} De Eventibus Angliæ, lib. ii. p. 2431, apud Decem. Script. By indenture of bargain and sale, dated 13 July, 1669, Mathias Terry and Elizabeth his wife conveyed to the Corporation of London, as trustees for Christ's Hospital, certain pieces of land, &c. in or near Maidenhead Street, otherwise Distaff Lane. Rept. of Com. of Charities on the London Hospitals, 32, part vi. 1840, p. 139.

^{page 88 note d} L'esclaircissement de la Langue Francoyse, composé par maistre Jehan Palsgrave. Fol. 1530.

^{page 89 note a} This MS. belongs to the old Royal Collection, and is numbered 10 E. IV. It contains the Five Books of Decretals, and formerly belonged to Saint Bartholomew's Hospital. At the end is written—

“Explicit hie totum, qui scripsit da sibi potum.”

The volume contains 628 pages, and is illustrated throughout with a profusion of illuminations representing the combats of knights, grotesques, and domestic occupations. The spinning scene is repeated at folios 137, 139, 146, and 147.

^{page 89 note b} This is in fact the wheel called a “torn, ” for spinning wool, still used in some districts of England.

^{page 89 note c} I know not what to make of the following passage in Stowe's Chronicle, p. 870, ed. 1631:—”About the 20th year of Henry VIIth Anthony Bonvise, an Italian, came into this land, and taught English people to spin with a distaff, at which time began the making of Devonshire kersies and corall clothes.” Aubrey, in his Natural History of Wiltshire, says, “The art of spinning is so much improved within these last fourty years that one pound of wool makes twice as much cloath (as to extent) as it did before the civill warres.” Both these notices evidently allude to mechanical improvements.

^{page 89 note d} Voce Quenouille

^{page 90 note a} Voce fuseau. Proverbs allusive to the distaff and spindle are of course common to every country. Ducange gives one formerly common in Italy—” Fa d'una lancia uno fuso.” In Portugal they say—

“Cada terra o seu uzo,

Cada roca o seu fuzo.”

^{page 90 note b} Northern Mythology, comprising the principal Popular Traditions and Superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, &c. By B. Thorpe, vol. i. p. 278. London, 1851.—Grimm, D. Myth. p. 250.

^{page 90 note c} art. Twelfth Day.

^{page 91 note a} Northern Mythology, ut sup. vol. iii. p. 153.

^{page 91 note b} Glossary, v. Distaff.

^{page 91 note c} Vol. i. p. 193, edit. 1841.

^{page 91 note c} It is suggested by a friend that the morrow of Twelfth Day would only occasionally be a Monday; but it may have been figuratively called so, being the first day after the feast of Christmas, as Monday was the first after the feast of the Sabbath.

^{page 91 note e} Northern Myth. vol. ii. p. 111.

^{page 91 note f} Northern Myth. vol. ii. p. 172.

^{page 92 note a} Ibid. vol. iii. p. 6. In Altmark there must be no spinning on Thursday evening, nor any dung carried out on that day. Ibid. p. 174.

^{page 92 note b} A reprint of this singular work has just appeared in Paris. Apart from the passages of coarse humour, it contains notices of, and allusions to, many curious superstitions of the middle ages.

^{page 92 note c} Interfuisti aut consensisti vanitatibus quas mulieres exercent in suis laneficiis, in suis telis, quæ cum ordiuntur telas suas, sperant se utrumque posse facere cum incantationibus et cum aggressu illarum, ut et fila staminis et subteminis in invicem ita commisceantur, nisi his iterum aliis diaboli incantationibus e contra subveniant, totum pereat? Si interfuisti, aut consensisti, triginta dies pœniteas in pane et aqua.—Burchardi Wormaciensis Decret. lib. xix.

^{page 93 note a} VoL X. Plates xx. xxi. and xxii.

^{page 93 note b} One of the marble bas-reliefs on the façade of the cathedral of Orvieto has a similar subject. D'Agencourt, Sculpt. Part i. Plate 32.

^{page 93 note c} Dugdale's Monasticon, edit. 1830, vol. vi. pt. iii. p. 1539. From the Cott. MS. Vesp. D. viii.

^{page 94 note a} Chron. Rythm. p. 496, apud Ihre, Gloss, v. Rocken.

^{page 94 note b} Anno 1500, sig. n. i.

^{page 94 note c} Act i. scene 2.

^{page 94 note d} Wits' Interpreter, quoted by Nares, v. Distaff.

^{page 94 note e} The Nonne Prest his Tale, 16869–7O.

^{page 94 note f} Vide the “Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda, ” edit. Rokewode, p. 73.

^{page 95 note a} “Plus pres l'autel on ouvrit celui de Jeanne de Bourgogne, premiere femme de Philippe de Valois, dans lequel on trouva l'anneau d'argent qui portait cette princesse, sa quenouille, et son fuseau.” Notes historiques sur les exhumations faites en 1793, dans l'Abbaye de St. Denis, p. 354.

^{page 95 note b} “Dans le cercueil de Jeanne de Bourbon sa femme (Charles V.) on a decouvert un reste de couronne, son anneau d'or, des debris de bracelets ou chainons, un fuseau ou quenouille de bois doré, des souliers de forme pointue, etc.”—Ibid. p. 346.

^{page 95 note c} Antiquities of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 236.

^{page 95 note d} “Cujus fusum argenteum in ejus memoriæ ibidem est suspensum.”—Ditmar. Chron. apud Script. Rer. Brunswic. edit. Leibnit. lib. ii.

^{page 95 note e} Memoir of John Aubrey, by John Britton. 4to. London, 1845, p. 86.

^{page 96 note a} Instit. Stat. de Hen. V. cap 5, of Additions, p. 668, edit. 1797.

^{page 96 note b} Voce Spinster.

^{page 96 note c} Ibid

^{page 96 note d} Pollard, miles et justio. habuit xi. filios gladii cinctos in tumulo suo, et totidem filias fusis depinctas.— Gloss, voce Spinster.

^{page 96 note e} Dugdale, Origines Juridiciales, Chronica Series, pp. 78–9.

^{page 96 note f} Fuller says, in his “Worthies of England, ”—” Sir Lewis Pollard, of King's Nimet, in this county (Devon), Serjeant of the Law, and one of the Justices of the King's Bench in the time of Henry VIII., was a man of singular knowledge and worth, who by his Lady Elizabeth had eleven sons, four of whom attained to the honour of knighthood, and eleven daughters, married to the most potent families in this county.”

“The portraiture of Sir Lewis and his lady, with their two and twenty children, are set up in a glass window at Nimet Bishop. There is a tradition continued in this family, that the lady glassing the window in her husband's absence at the term in London, caused one child more than she had to be set up, presuming (having had one and twenty already) she should have another child, which inserted in expectance, came to pass accordingly. This memorable knight died anno 1540.” P. 255, ed. 1662. This window has disappeared, and the memory of it is entirely forgotten.

Gwillim, in his Display of Heraldry, gives a coat of Hoby, of Neath Abbey, the bearings of which are three fusils or spindles.

Of the family of Trefusis, he says, they bear, Argent, a chevron between three wharrow spindles sable, adding—” This spindle differeth much from those preceding in respect of the crook above, and of the wharrow imposed upon the lower part thereof. This sort of spindle women do use most commonly to spin withall, not at the torn, as the former, but at a distaff put under their girdle, so as they oftentimes spin therewith going. The round ball at the lower end serveth to the fast twisting of the thread, and is called a wharrow; and therefore this is called a wharrow-spindle, where the others are called slippers that pass through the yarn as this doth.” A friend informs me that on one occasion he saw in the Highlands of Scotland a small potato serving the office of a wharrow, or spindle-whirl.

^{page 97 note a} Fol. 67.

^{page 97 note b} He might have added, that she had need be on her guard against a description of roguery described by the Monk of Malvern. Covetise says:

“My wif was a webbe,

And wollen cloth made;

She spak to spynnesteres

To spynnen it oute,

Ac the pound that she paied by

Peised a quatron moore

Than myn owene auncer

Who so weyed truthe.”

Vision of Piers Ploughman, 1. 2904.

^{page 97 note c} Fol. 68.

^{page 98 note a} Prol. to the Wyf of Bathe's Tale, 5983–4.

^{page 97 note b} The passage is so curious that I transcribe it for the reader's edification:—“Tune sancta mater Deo plena, colo, quam manu tenebat, cœpit terram fodere, et in modum sulci rigam facere, orans ac dicens: Ostende nobis Domine misericordiam tuam, et salutare tuum da nobis. Revertens namque ad Monasterium, colum eadem post se trahebat, tantaque abundantia aquæ eam sequebatur, ut ad usus omnes hominibus pertinentes sufficeret: sicut usque hodie apparet.”—De S. Bertha Martyre Abatissa Avennaci. Acta Sanctorum, Maij, tom. i. p. 114.

^{page 98 note c} Pour etre quite des poirions, il fault prendre du fille qui une femme a filé tandis qu'elle couche d'enfant, et en loyer les poirions, et incontinent ilz cherront tous, sans aucune reméde.—Les Evangiles des Quenouilles, App. B. Quatrieme serie, p. 158, edit. 1855.

^{page 99 note a} It is thus rendered a stiletto, with which the woman of the South could defend herself. In the North of Europe the distaff might be converted into a club.

^{page 99 note b} MS. Harl. 4375.

^{page 99 note c} O! dist Spadassin, par Dieu voicy ung bon resveux; mais allons nous cacher au coign de la cheminée; et la passons avec les dames nostre vie et nostre temps à enfiler de perles, ou à filer comme Sardanapalus.— Rabelais, liv. i. c. 33.

^{page 101 note a} Fairfax, Jer. lib. iv. 24.